La Cimade reminds Olympics fans that just living is winning for France’s refugees

October 11, 2017

Paris’ winning the bid to host the 2024 Olympics is big news. It’s news to which people will pay attention.

French ad agency, Josiane, has used this to highlight another big issue in France right now. Its refugee problem. Tens of thousands of people are still arriving in France each year and in October France committed to take 10,000 refugees from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Niger and Chad over the next two years.

The awareness campaign, Living is Winning, for refugee aid organisation, La Cimade, will stand in a crowd of sports ads promoting the strength, motivation, courage and might of athletes. Simply comparing the undertakings of athletes and refugees. The campaign launched the day after Paris was named host of the 2024 Olympics.

There are three 30-second commercials and a cluster of poster ads, shot by Espen Rasmussen, in the campaign. The films were created and directed by Valentin Guiod, an art director at Josiane Paris and Min-Hyung Choi, a junior planner at adam&eveDDB London.

The films are constructed with utmost simplicity to achieve the maximum emotive power, each following the same format. The films trigger an emotional response immediately with their ECU openings of what appears to be an Olympic athlete performing, underlined by a title which reads, “In 2024, athletes will swim [run or jump, depending on the ad] to win.” The camera pulls back during the ads to reveal that the person is a refugee, and this is punctuated by a title which reads, “Every day, refugees swim [run or jump] to live.”

“We can never say enough how much force and courage these women and men need to risk their lives in search for a better place beside us, where they hope to live in dignity,” stated Geneviève Jacques, president of La Cimade.

“Protecting human dignity and social inclusion is at the heart of La Cimade’s mission since 1939. Our organisation will double our efforts to continue to host, help and support refugees, but also raise awareness of their alarming situation among the wider public.”